Developmental Disabilities: Care For Floridians

Sunday

Aug 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM

The long-intractable problem of supporting and caring for a portion of people with developmental disabilities is being approached with a wave of determination from leaders of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

The long-intractable problem of supporting and caring for a portion of people with developmental disabilities is being approached with a wave of determination from leaders of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Fueling their enthusiasm is an increased budget for the fiscal year that started in July.The agency works with people who have spina bifida, autism, cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi syndrome, Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities.Among the efforts of the agency, headed by Director Barbara Palmer, is traveling the state to hold town hall meetings with residents who have developmental disabilities and family members.Wednesday afternoon, Palmer and other agency representatives held such a meeting at the W.H. Stuart Conference Center in Bartow. Afterward, they met with the Editorial Board in Lakeland.About 90 people attended the two-hour town hall meeting in Bartow, reported The Ledger's Robin Williams Adams in an article Thursday. Among them was Gov. Rick Scott, for the first hour.Scott, who pushed for the new funding, said improvement in the economy and employment could make even more funding possible."If you have a disability, it doesn't mean you can't work," Scott added.However, much of what developmentally disabled residents and those who advocate for them said focused on still-tight funds and regulations. The result is needs not met.

RECOMMENDATIONS SOUGHTPalmer, whose manner is optimistic and energetic, acknowledged the difficulties. However, she urged people with experience with the state support system to become involved with one of a group of statewide committees. The committees have a deadline of Nov. 15 to provide recommendations that may be used to create legislative proposals, or improve policies or procedures."We're looking at different ways of doing business and serving people," Palmer told the Editorial Board. "For the first time, we can be proactive. We're not running a deficit. We're now able to start taking people off the wait list, start doing some long-range planning — that's why we are going around talking to people."The committees "are looking at long-range planning, behavior services, caregivers aging out," employment, health and wellness, and others, Palmer said.Many problems are apparent. For example, Palmer said, the time when a young developmentally disabled person completes high school is critical."They're either going to go into higher education — a lot of people with developmental disabilities do. Some of them will go directly into work," she said. "But if they're not on our waiver, and they don't do one of those two things, somebody in that household has to quit their job to take care of them, because they've been in school all day long and, now, all of a sudden, they're not. We've got to give them the opportunity to work."The waiver results in a federal funding match to the state of about 56 percent if the developmentally disabled person waives the federal right for care in an institution. This allows the person to be kept "in your home or a smaller setting," Palmer said.

CRISIS"What we're asking the schools to do is to identify the level of employability," Palmer said.Of some 22,000 people on the agency's waiting list, about 3,000 are at a crisis level.Among the examples of such crises, Palmer said, is "where both parents are working and one of them gets very, very ill, and the child graduates and doesn't have a job. The other one, now, has to quit their job, so nobody's working." The result is a downward spiral, she said. "I'm signing stuff where people have lost their homes. They never get out of that situation again. We've got to prevent that."Such circumstances demonstrate why this work is so important.The Lakeland field office of the agency's Central Region serves Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Phone: 863-413-3360.[ Note: A podcast accompanies this editorial at TheLedger.com/podcast. Listen to the Editorial Board's full interview with officials of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The podcast will play on a personal computer. Or download it free at the iTunes Store for use on an iPod or similar player; search: Ledger Editorial. ]